


Angel's Turn to Anarchy

by appletaile



Category: I Was Born for This - Alice Oseman
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 23:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16073699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appletaile/pseuds/appletaile
Summary: The Ark are a group of teens with superpowers who have been unexpectedly thrust into fame. Soon Jimmy, Rowan and Lister have to make big decisions regarding their future, but things are not as they seem with the organisation that created their group – as they find out through a chance meeting with super-fan Angel who is hiding some secrets of her own.





	Angel's Turn to Anarchy

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Osemanverse Big Bang 2018. Thank you so much to my wonderful artist Becci (invisiblewords-invisibleworlds on tumblr) for doing the the most amazing cover art for this story -- PLEASE go and admire it [here](https://invisiblewords-invisibleworlds.tumblr.com/post/178380292219/this-is-the-cover-art-for-efferveseance-s-fic). The title is a play on the lyrics of 'Midnight Mouths' by Lauren Aquilina. I hope you enjoy!

_When you're messing with hell fire_  
_Angels turn to anarchy_

\- Midnight Mouths, Lauren Aquilina

 

* * *

****

**_Teen superheroes THE ARK sighted saving the day again!_ **

_The popular superhero team known as The Ark, who recently shot to fame after a high profile showdown, have been spotted yet again by fans who are eager to discover their daytime identities. Little is known about these mysterious figures aside from their age, names and location, creating a great deal of excitement among the public. Turn to page 5 for an in-depth analysis of all the information available about their possible identities…_

 

“Hey, don’t read that crap. You know that no one pays attention to that kind of thing.”

Startled, Jimmy looked up from the magazine to see that Rowan Omondi had sat down with a bowl of cereal opposite him.

“Uh, yeah,” Jimmy said weakly, pushing the magazine to the side. He’d known that people would start searching for their identities when they’d started of course, but it was far more alarming now that it was a reality. It was only a matter of time, really, before they discovered the true members of The Ark – three average boys from the middle of nowhere – and their lives were ended forever.

“Jimmy, I can see that you’re still stewing from all the way over here.” Rowan shook his spoon in what was probably supposed to be a threatening way but it just looked ridiculous. “Have you eaten anything yet?”

Jimmy rolled his eyes. “I had an orange.”

“Good enough.”

“Glad to know that I pass muster with the guy eating tiny chocolate Weetabix.”

“Excuse you, Weetabix are very healthy,” Rowan protested.

Sighing, Jimmy looked out the window of their flat. The Ark had been allocated this place so that Fort could keep a close eye on them and stop their families from getting into any danger or something. Jimmy thought it was mainly just so that they could be found at the least inconvenience for doing any sort of task which would bring them publicity. At least it was spacious.

“Where’s Lister?” he asked, tearing his thoughts away.

Rowan grimaced. “Still in his room, I think. . I hope he’s up for that interview tomorrow. We don’t want him to lose control and start accidentally forcing people to do stuff.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Lister had drunk quite a bit after their meeting with Fortyesterday. He did that a lot. He couldn’t really control his words when he was like that – which was to say, most of the time.

But they all wanted to sign this new deal – it was the best thing for the Ark. And Cecily had told them there was a cutting-edge new venture which would aid superheroes across the country to drastically reduce crime and help even more people. They just had to sign the contract, and then they could help people. The only thing that made going into the shadow world less like hell was the fact that it was actually useful.

Yes, Jimmy reminded himself. As long as they were helping people everything was fine. That’s what they were here for.

 

* * *

 

“The Ark’s meteoric rise to fame has been completely unprecedented. How are you guys coping with it? Does it interfere with your heroic activities at all?”

Jimmy fiddled with a button on his mask as the interviewer continued to question them. This whole TV thing hadn’t sounded so bad when Cecily had first mentioned it, but now it was actually happening Jimmy found he didn’t really have the words.

“…of course it’s a change, but it hasn’t at all affected what we’re doing for the city,” Rowan was saying. “It’s good to have the exposure.”

There was a crowd gathering around the camera crew on the street as they realised what was happening, and despite the security the noise was increasing and there were people screaming. Jimmy wished for the thousandth time that they’d done this _inside_ and not in a public place in an attempt to seem ‘spontaneous’.

And then he stopped thinking, because with a roar of the crowd a bolt of light burst through the air towards them. _CRACK!_ Jimmy looked around wildly. Rowan was clutching the side of his head. The whole crew and security were in complete disarray and shock, and the crowd was surging towards them. Jimmy –

shifted

_\-- into the shadow place, moving through the sticky darkness as silhouettes froze around him, not thinking at all, just trying to get away from this crowd, away towards another street, and then he --_

shifted

\-- and he was back in the real world. He looked around. He was in a much smaller street, with only a few cars passing an entrance onto the main road. He couldn’t remember how he’d gotten here.

“Hello? Are you okay?”

Jimmy spun around frantically, holding up his grandad’s knife that he carried with him everywhere.

In front of him was standing a tall teenage girl wearing a green hijab. She was holding up her hands. “I’m Angel Rahimi,” she said slowly, looking at the knife with wide eyes..

Jimmy’s vision was still spinning around. “Angel?”

“Yeah. I’m a fan of the Ark. I want to help you.” A fan? Oh, no no no, all the fans just wanted to get close to them to find out who they really were.

“Please, help, I’m – don’t come near,” Jimmy said with gritted teeth. He tried to take in a deep breath. “But – not back there. They’ll all come here. I don’t –”

“How can I make this better? I – I’m not going to hurt you.”

Jimmy shook his head and kept trying to breathe.

“Okay, um, take a deep breath in.” Angel made a whooshing sound. “And a deep breath out. In…out…”

It seemed like an age passed but, at last, Jimmy felt the panic subside slightly. He slumped down to the floor and leant against the brick wall, letting the knife fall to his side. He registered that he’d probably be covered in all the London grime on the floor after this but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Hey,” Angel said. “That’s good. That’s better. Actually, I’m gonna sit down as well, if it’s okay. That was, um, kind of – never mind.”

Jimmy nodded, and then Angel sat down cross legged on the floor.

“Look,” she said. “I know this isn’t the best time, and I promise I wasn’t trying to make this happen or anything, but now that you’re here there’s something I should tell you.”

No, no, this wasn’t good. Jimmy pulled back from Angel as she reached into her pocket to pull something out. It was a small red badge with small angel wings on.

“Oh my god,” Jimmy said, scrambling to his feet and away from Angel as though she were holding a dangerous weapon out to him. “You’re one of _them._ Jesus, I have to –”

He looked wildly around the street. There was a house blocking the other end. Fuck. He didn’t have the mental energy to shift right now. He made a break for it past Angel onto the main road, almost without thinking about it.

And from the street Angel, clutching the red badge with her mouth still open in surprise, heard a shout of “FOUND HIM!” echo back to her from the road. If you looked close enough, you’d see that the leaves and debris left along the road were not simply drifting in the breeze, but in fact hovering unsteadily several inches from the ground.

But Jimmy did not get the chance to see this, or the way that the leaves gradually settled back to the ground as Angel gently tucked away the badge, and then gingerly crouched down to pick up the knife left behind. He did not see any of this.

 

* * *

 

“So,” Juliet said, slumping onto the sofa, “you mean to tell me that you accidentally found Jimmy Kaga-Ricci, probably the most influential person we could convince of the truth, and he just ran away?”

Angel also took the cue to lean back onto the sofa. Bliss’ apartment-slash-temporary-hideout for the operations had a lot of comfortable seating areas and she enjoyed it very much.

“Um, yes?” she said. “He seemed really scared. And he definitely recognised the badge, that was when he ran.”

“We don’t want to scare him,” Bliss said from across the room. She set down the juice she’d been sipping. “Or any of the others. But worse things will come if we don’t warn them, and we need to find a way to tell them. Soon.”

Angel sighed. It was true – The Ark would be in far more danger staying as they were. And it had to be in person, since Fort almost certainly monitored all their phones and the apartment. “I mean. I’ve got something of Jimmy’s… He’d probably want it back.” She felt terrible about trying to get to him in this way but they would understand.

Juliet sat up. “You do?”

“Yeah. His knife or whatever.”

“Wait, since when did he PULL A KNIFE ON YOU??”

Angel reached over into her bag and pulled out the knife. “I don’t think it’s, like, a dangerous knife. It looks mostly decorative. But it seemed important to him.”

Bliss shrugged. “If you message him that then it won’t reveal anything about us in particular.”

Angel’s fan account was, in fact, an actual fan account – it was how she’d met Juliet and Bliss to uncover the truth about Fort. Although they’d discovered more was going on, she still loved The Ark.

“Okey-dokey,” Juliet said. “Plan return knife it is.”

 

* * *

 

_hi jimmy, it’s angel. i know you’re probably scared but trust me, it’s not what it seems. i can’t explain here. i’ll bring it back to you and then i’ll explain?_

_i know who you are. i know you have my knife. give it back._

 

 

* * *

 

Jimmy spotted Angel quickly among the crowds of the station – she was tall – and he stopped where he was. They stared at each other for a second, then Angel started moving towards him.

“Hey,” Angel said, stopping a while away. She fumbled in her bag. “Uh, I have your knife, it’s here. But listen, I need to talk to you.”

“You’re supposed to be evil,” Jimmy said in a low voice. “We’re _fighting_ you. Why haven’t you tried to kill me yet?

Angel glanced around at the people around them, but no one seemed to be paying attention. The she said, very quickly, “Look, Fort aren’t who they seem. They’ve been lying to you. We’re not doing anything bad. But you’re in danger, the city’s in danger, and you have to get out of the way.”

“What? Do you just expect me to believe that?” Jimmy hissed.

“Don’t you think if I wished you harm I’d have done it already? One of my friends, she’s found evidence –” Angel leaned in closer further “—basically, your organisation is super shady, they’re doing super shady things to their other groups. I couldn’t tell you over your phone since we don’t know if they’re monitoring it.”

Jimmy reached into his pocket. He was starting to feel sick. He sure as heck didn’t trust this girl, but it wasn’t like he’d trusted Fort either. Cecily was fine, but everyone else? It was super weird how they never got to see anyone.

“Show me the evidence,” he said.

“Not here.” At Jimmy’s look, Angel clarified, “We can just go to a different place. Not alone, but not…here. We can just go round the corner..”

She pulled Jimmy out the station and round to a smaller street. Taking out some headphones, she plugged them into her phone, handed them to Jimmy, and pressed play on a recording. The voice was one that Jimmy had rarely heard in person but it was horribly, horribly familiar: the head of Fort.

_The Ark are a good asset but they’re unsatisfied… We need to implement a new kind of justice, picking off potential targets instead of waiting until the deed is done… With this new deal they’ll be ours and we can get from them what we want…_

It passed in a blur for Jimmy. All that he’d known for the last two years – gone. And he couldn’t unsee it, couldn’t undo all the scenes that changed shape in his head: the instructions for targeting innocent people, the capture of superheroes, the new record deal. It was like when you see the other shape in the optical illusion; you can’t go back. Irreversible.

“Shit,” he said.

“Yup,” Angel replied.

“No, I mean – _shit,_ how will I tell the others?”

 

* * *

 

“Okay, what the fuck is happening?” said Lister standing in the door of their apartment. “Are you being mind controlled by this girl or something? This is super weird.”

Jimmy glanced at Angel as she winced and said. “I definitely can’t control people’s minds. I’m…not even sure if that’s possible yet?” Lister, it was fair to say, was not taking it well.

Lister threw his hands up in the air. “Well, I don’t know! You _would_ say that!”

“ _Please_ ,” said Jimmy. “It’s me. I know it seems weird but we can’t talk about this inside. Just, like, literally just come into the lift or something. I can tell you a secret that no one else would know or whatever. Also, we need Rowan.”

Jimmy held his breath as Lister seemed to decide, his gaze shifting between them, his face bright in the lights of the corridor. No one else was on their floor but it still felt like a very public place to be talking.

Finally Lister took a deep breath, looked away and spoke, in a different voice to before. “ **Tell the truth,** ” he said. **“Do you want to hurt me or The Ark?”**

Lister’s voice like this was always strange to hear – it was both him and not-him, his voice with a tone of something deep and mysterious that compelled the words out from inside Jimmy. Having his control removed like that was always uncomfortable. Lister hadn’t used it intentionally on Jimmy or Rowan in years, even when they’d fought.

“No,” Jimmy and Angel said at exactly the same time.

Lister slumped against the doorframe, leaning his head between his elbows. “Ugh, god, why do I even bother. Now I’m going to have a splitting headache for the whole afternoon.”

“At least you know now,” Jimmy said shakily. “I told you so.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t fancy dying. Sorry.”

“Can you get, er, Rowan now?” Angel cut in. Her eyes were wide. After Lister

nodded and shouted off into the apartment, she whispered to Jimmy, “Does it always feel like that? I’ve never met someone else like him.”

“Uh, yeah,” said Jimmy. He wondered how many superheroes Angel had met. She seemed pretty chill with them but he was still uncomfortable at how little he knew about her.

Rowan’s eyes widened when he saw them, but Jimmy guessed Lister had already talked to him because he didn’t make any other comments.

“Okay, come on, we can just go down here.” Angel got into the lift, and they all followed (rather suspiciously on Rowan and Lister’s part).

The doors clicked shut. “Phew, so now you can tell us what this whole secrecy thing is about,” Lister said. “Is this a surprise party? Because that would be awesome but also completely unnecessary.”

Rowan didn’t say anything.

“Er,” Jimmy said, turning to the buttons on the lift so he didn’t have to look at the others. “Basically, Fort might be…tracking us. Or monitoring us. More than we thought. And you know how they’ve been kind of dodgy lately? Well, it seems like that’s because they actually _are_ dodgy.”

“Huh,” said Lister.

“What exactly do you mean?” said Rowan carefully.

Jimmy looked at Angel. Her eyebrows went up and she pointed at herself as if to say _me?_ “Um, so, don’t freak out but I think you’ve been told I’m evil?” She pulled out her badge from her pocket and handed it to Lister.

Lister’s eyes went wide. “What. Holy shit, Jimmy –”

“She’s not looking to hurt us, remember?”

“I’ll get in front of you,” Rowan said. He was frowning at Angel. “And yeah, I agree Fort have been giving me a weird sense whenever we meet them, but _what do you mean?_ Are they trying to take over the world?” He waved his hands. “Or if not, what _are_ they doing?”

 _Going down_ came the soft voice of the lift and they all jumped as it started descending.

“Okay, we’ve found a bunch of evidence and I can show it to you later,” Angel said, speaking very quickly. “But basically they’re trying to arrest innocent people and experiment on superheroes and it’s all very unethical and also we need you to help us expose them.”

The lift pinged as it reached the bottom. A group of people in suits were waiting at the bottom. Angel rushed out and said slightly hysterically, “Nice to see you, I’ll be in touch soon!”

The people in suits got in, The Ark looked at each other, and the lift ascended back to their apartment. They had a _lot_ to digest.

 

* * *

 

There was a discussion, there was work, there was trying not to think about what he was doing, and _finally_ Jimmy met with Angel again. Except this time she was with 2 other girls. The first introduced herself as Bliss, who had been leading their whole thing, and the second as Juliet. They sat close together on the sofa in their apartment – Angel’s apartment? Jimmy didn’t think she’d be able to rent one on her own. He didn’t really know.

“No offence, but you guys seem to be dealing with this…weirdly well,” said Bliss to Jimmy, Rowan and Lister. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Jimmy mumbled and looked at the floor. _Alright?_ Well, that was a wild thought.

“Uh,” said Rowan. “I mean. Not exactly, but I think we could tell something was wrong.”

“Does this even matter?” said Lister.

Bliss leaned forwards. “We’re trying to carry out a difficult, dangerous operation, so _yes,_ it does matter if you’re alright, because we don’t want you to have a breakdown in the middle and get seriously hurt.” She paused. “Also, you know, I do actually care about you as human beings.”

“Aaaand you just saw a snapshot of fearless leader mode,” whispered Angel, nodding knowingly.

The Ark looked at each other. There was a moment of silence and then Rowan cracked a nervous smile.

“Right!” said Juliet, standing up. “Let’s make a plan then.”

“Why did you stand up?” Angel said.

“Because we are MAKING A PLAN and it seemed like a good idea. Now shush. Onto this plan…”

 

* * *

 

 

Jimmy looked at the imposing Fort tower, reaching upwards beside the other skyscrapers, from across the city. It felt strange that Rowan and Lister weren’t here – but he guessed he’d see them soon.

“Ready?” said Juliet in his ear, and he jumped a little.

“Yup,” he said.

“Alright. And….now!” And Jimmy

shifted

\-- _into the shadows, hiking through the different shades of grey for what seemed like hours until he reached the tall, familiar door, goings onwards, remembering the floor plan, and he –_

shifted

back into the real world. When his vision stopped swirling, he found himself in a darkened room lined with shelves. He opened one of the drawers and saw files, just as Bliss had said. He felt like he was in a strange heist movie except the strangest part was that it was actually real.

“Jimmy?” Juliet said. “Did you get through?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Okay, now we’re looking for a green folder, it’s probably in the corner..”

Jimmy looked through several drawers following Juliet’s instructions, eventually finding the files they were looking for. It was titled with an ominous series of letters and numbers. He didn’t open it up.

“Right, now you just have to shift back and we’ll meet the rest of the team and the others they got out,” Juliet said.

Jimmy shut his eyes to

shift –

\-- _and went into the shadow place, but then someone else was there too, someone’s hand was over his eyes and he couldn’t even open them to see the shapes, and his breath came rapidly but he couldn’t make any sound –_

 

* * *

“Angel!” Juliet half-shouted. “Oh my god, I think something’s happened to Jimmy. He hasn’t come through at the meeting place and he’s not responding to anything I’m saying.”

Angel looked around at their ragtag group of Rowan, Lister, and the rest of the superheroes they’d found in Fort. Bliss was still somewhere in the building

“Hey, um, has Jimmy ever been stuck whilst shifting before by any chance?” she asked Rowan in a low voice.

Rowan looked at her with wide eyes. “Once,” he said. “And it was…not good.”

“Okay, so, you need to tell me how to get him out.”

 

* * *

 

 

_\-- Jimmy struggled against the shadows pressing in on him, against the other person, trying to find his way out, but his brain was too foggy and he couldn’t make it. Suddenly he managed to twist away from the person, twist around, and then a hand was reaching in from the outside and pulling and he –_

shifted

back into the world. He fell down to his knees and gasped. Angel and Rowan and Lister were standing above him.

“There’s – someone else,” he managed to get out. “You guys need to go.”

“We can fight them,” said one of the superheroes they’d rescued. He was tall with blonde hair. “I mean, obviously we’re not in the best condition right now, but now we’re out of that weird place our powers have properly come back.”

“Uh,” Angel said, “is now a good time to say that...I think I can make some things float? If it’s useful?”

“What,” Jimmy said.

“Okay, a later explanation would definitely be useful, but we only resort to that _if_ they come out of there,” Rowan said. “We’re not even sure if they _can_ get out.”

Of course, at that exact moment a figure with short brown hair slipped out of the strange break in reality and tumbled onto the floor. Jimmy tried to move away, and some of the superheroes tensed for a fight– but then the person on the floor just slumped back down. They looked pretty worse for wear and kind of like a generic white teenage boy, to be honest.

“That was kind of anticlimactic,” Lister said.

“I…sorry…” they said, struggling to sit up. They blinked. “Wait, what? What’s happening?”

“Never you mind,” Lister said.

Jimmy sat up. “Do we have everything, Angel? And also, here’s the –” he handed the folder over to her.

“Yup, I just heard from Bliss.”

“Hello! I am here!” Bliss said over the headphones, and then she ran down the street to the car park where they were meeting. (Was it strange to meet in a car park? Maybe? But also, they had a lot of people, and there were not many cars.)

Jimmy looked at Rowan, Lister, Angel and Jimmy, and thought of Juliet back in the apartment, and all the people they’d found. It wasn’t done yet. They still had to expose Fort for real. But they had everything they needed to do it, and Jimmy had friends, for the first time in a while he felt hopeful.


End file.
